Flying

The Dish: Gourmet Cupcakes. With more than a dozen variations, there's something to satisfy the most sophisticated taste. Imagine a double-chocolate cupcake with imported French chocolate; a rich red velvet cupcake with cream-cheese frosting; or perhaps a tiramisu or key-lime variant.

Uber-barges, such as the 6,000-plus-nautical-mile-range Gulfstream G550 and Bombardier Global Express, are often the launch platforms for passenger comfort and avionics features that later show up on somewhat smaller, less expensive and more limited-range aircraft.

Charles Colburn, Boeing Business Jets/VIP director of marketing, was trying to explain the recent sales boom for his division's airliner-sized executive aircraft. "There's just been a tremendous rise in the number of billionaires," he said.

While no one will stop you from stowing batteries on your own aircraft, the U.S. Department of Transportation has banned all loose batteries from checked baggage on airline and charter flights for reasons that seem just as applicable to privately owned jets.

Airplanes come apart in midair for a variety of reasons. An errant pilot loses control or flies a model past its design limit, or unrepaired cracks and corrosion cause structure to fail. Fortunately, rigorous pilot training and aircraft maintenance standards make such events few and far between. Even rarer is the case when a design flaw brings down a relatively new airplane.

[Editor's note: On September 19, 2008, DayJet Services, LLC, discontinued its jet services and canceled all future flights, the result, the company said, of its "inability to arrange critical financing in the midst of the current global financial crisis." DayJet also said it was unable to honor customer reservations or issue refunds.]

Taking care of an airplane is a big job, which is why many owners turn it over to management companies.
As part of the arrangement, these companies often charter out the aircraft. Most of their charter customers are legitimate business travelers, but the government is now warning business jet charter operators about a different type of clientele-drug smugglers.